1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drinking cups. More particularly, the present invention relates to a drinking cup assembly designed for use by a child or an infant. The drinking cup assembly comprises two portions; one portion being the cup portion, and the other portion being the lid portion. The lid portion has access holes for sipping the cup contents.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Parents and other child care providers have long sought a suitable drinking cup that allows an infant or a child to sip the liquid from a cup and yet prevent removal by the child of the lid and shortly thereafter the entire contents of the cup. A conventional cup of this type does not provide much of this desired prevention that is sought.
Raising a child can be a nerve-wracking experience. One of the most challenging tasks for the adult is letting the child learn to feed him/herself. The child usually learns to drink form a restricted flow cup generally known as a sipping cup, but the child also quickly learns that the top of the sipping cup can be unscrewed and the contents dumped on the highchair tray or the floor. Little children quickly discover that this behavior is fun as it irritates the parent or the supervising adult.
In the effort to overcome the problems of known provisions for children's drinking cups, modification of the basic drinking cup have been attempted.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,850,496 to Rudell et al discloses a container for liquids. The cap of the container has a drinking spout similar to those on a child's drinking cup and as an alternative to a threaded connection it has a pair of twist locks or a bayonet type of connection as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7. However, these locks are not childproof and can be opened by a simple rotation of the cap containing the spout.
An attempt at preventing any access by a child is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,031 to Lohrman, issued Nov. 9, 1982. This patent is directed toward preventing a child from attaining any access to the contents of the container. The safety closure has a pair of lock tabs which prevent rotation of the tab to unscrew it. The lock tabs are released by squeezing the closure skirt.
While providing some measure of protection by controlling accessibility of a child to contents of a container, these devices all suffer from common defects, including the lack of a childproof lock but yet still allowing partial flow while preventing full flow, as when the cap is totally removed.
Accordingly, the problem of spillable infant's and children's drinking cups has not been successfully addressed by prior inventions.
The object of the present invention is to provide a children's or infant's drinking cup assembly that has the beneficial qualities of a cup assembly that allows the child or infant to drink and yet does not allow the child to remove the lid and spill the entire contents out of the drinking cup.